Dread Duckies
The Dread Duckies are one of the many enemies in Dark Deception. They make their first appearance in Chapter 3, and are the main enemies of the level "Stranger Sewers", sharing the level with the boss enemy Doom Ducky. Appearance The Dread Duckies appear as large ducks made of a hard plastic-like material, with movable wings, and a jaw filled with blocky teeth. The ducks appear to be dirty and damaged with visible cracks on his forehead, large empty eyes with one bigger than the other and having dry water dripping down below on each of their empty eyes, and wearing traffic cones as hats. Inside the mouth of the Dread Ducky is a mechanical device that springs out of the extendable mouth of the Dread Ducky.The mechanism is a smaller, cartoonish-looking duck head with large eyes on its sides with black lines circling over it's eyes, and sharp teeth. Underneath the body is a large hole where two grotesque, rotten black human-like legs that extend from a large hole underneath the duck. The legs also appear to be extremely shriveled, due to water submersion. In Frenzy, the Dread Duckies have a light gray body and and like previous enemies, have red glowing eyes. Behavior The Dread Duckies are first seen floating behind a grate in the wall right after Bierce mentions them, floating into the area. Upon entering the water-filled regions of zone 1, multiple duckies can be found across the environment, beginning act 1. Act I The Dread Duckies rely primarily on camouflage to attack the player. Across the water regions of the level, many floating Duckies can be spotted. All initially share the same appearance, and the real ones are indistinguishable to the naked eye. Out of all the lifeless duckies, 6 of them are real. The only way to safely tell them apart is to either use a red soul shard or Telepathy, the level's main power, to reveal them. Telepathy will outline the real duckies. Unlike other enemies, the Dread Duckies do not pursue the player unless the player nears or passes by them. Upon nearing a real ducky, it will spring from its position and give chase. An advised method would to open as many doors as you can to avoid being cornered. During a chase, the Dread Duckies behave in a way quite similar to Agatha and the Clown Gremlins as they were never usually aware of the player's precise location of where they are in the map due to their AI of positioning themselves throughout the map to blend in with the others, and will only pursue them if they are within their line of sight or when the player getting themselves too close to the Dread Duckies. When they lose the location of the player's current position, they will start wandering around both the ground regions and water regions of the map, searching for the player's location before when they return to their current position and immediately camouflage themselves as lifeless duckies. The Dread Duckies will attempt to attack the player at close range, as well as extend their inner mouths at them, causing them to be stunned. Pressing the F key multiple times will allow the player to escape. While being stunned, the Dread Ducky will give the player time to be free by taunting them by dancing, delaying their movement for a short time. Another detail worth mentioning is that the Dread Duckies will try to avoid any floor grates on dry land. If the protagonist were to lure them onto dry land into a floor grate room, the Dread Duckies will instinctively go around the grate. It is unknown if this is a built-in mechanic or a glitch that has yet to be patched. Dread Duckies, however, will not avoid elevator platforms, but can get end up getting trapped in a pit if the player lowers it. This will most likely be patched in a later update. When stunned, the Dread Duckies will lean backwards while shifting their body around and flapping their wings. They also move their jaw up and down, and can be heard making unusual noises, such as duck-like quacks and shrill moans. In a chase, the Dread Duckies' default running speed in Normal Mode is much slower than the player when on ground, and very similar to the Murder Monkeys. In Easy Mode however, the Dread Duckies' speed is much slower in a chase, so the player can easily lose it without even needing the Speed Boost power. Act II In Act 2 the Dread Duckies are more difficult to avoid and now there are 9 of them, they will no longer go into stasis after losing sight of the player, and will instead continue standing, pursuing the player if seen again. They may also hide in the shadows to surprise the player and give a chase. There also appear to be a higher quantity of lifeless Duckies. Though unconfirmed, there may be other potential differences in this zone. Boss Battle Two Dread Duckies, now in frenzy, will be summoned during the battle with the Doom Ducky, emerging out of the pipes in the walls. During the fight, they will pursue the player, attempt to stun them, and kill them on contact. If the Doom Ducky will use his head to ram the player and if the player use the pillars to slow him down, the Dread Duckies will be stunned along the Doom Ducky, giving the player enough time to turn the valves. Final Act The Dread Duckies appear once again in zone 1, on the way back to the portal. In this act, 13 duckies will be alive and are all in a frenzied state and the player must avoid them while being chased by Doom Ducky. Some will dance in front of the sewer doors, blocking them and forcing the player to take an alternative route. One final Dread Ducky (Revealed to be the middle duck from behind the grate in the beginning) will appear in the portal hallway, and must be avoided, along with the Doom Ducky, who's head bursts through the secret doorway, to return back to the portal. Personality Dread Duckies, like the rest of the antagonists in the game, carry a murderous, sadistic, and highly aggressive nature. Along with that they seemed to appear enjoying taunting and stalking the player with their camouflage. Upon stunning the player the dread duckies start dancing, a way they use to torment the player which also carried out when they guard the doors in the final act. Trivia * In Chapter 3's preview, the Dread Ducky's silhouette turns towards the viewer before cutting to black. * They are confirmed to be one of the only enemies to have a long range attack. * The device duck head is confirmed to be inspired by the evil duck head from "Nightmare Before Christmas" * These enemies may represent Anatidaephobia, the fear of when somewhere in the world, a duck/geese is watching you and/or Ludilophobia, the fear of toys. And maybe Aquaphobia/Hydrophobia, the fear of water and/or lakes and oceans. * On March 23rd, the developers of the game posted a small clip on Instagram and Twitter, which showed that the Dread Duckies' extendable mouths will be able to stun the player. * Due to a brief scene of a Dread Ducky being animated (As seen in Devlog #5 at 5:39) has became a joke which some have started to call the "Dread Ducky Dance". ** In addition, on April 27th 2019, a short video on Twitter by the developer titled "Duck Season" was uploaded which was of a Dread Ducky dancing. *** This dance can be seen when a Dread Ducky stuns the player, as a way of mocking. ** In one of the secret elevators of the Sewer, one can find 4 Dread Duckies doing their dance inside the bars of the secret room. * Currently the Dread Duckies, Gold Watchers, Doom Ducky, and Clown Gremlins are the only enemies whose jumpscares take place in their map, instead of having a dark background like Murder Monkeys, Agatha and Malak, Vince Livings explained in "Meet the Dark Deception Team" that the reason for that was because they found a new way to animate the jumpscares in the map without making bugs. Category:Enemies Category:Characters Category:Chapter 3